BBC World Service

Listen Live

Next

Morning Edition

NPR's Morning Edition takes listeners around the country and the world with two hours of multi-faceted stories and commentaries that inform, challenge and occasionally amuse. Morning Edition is the most listened-to news radio program in the country.

NRA rally challenges Rendell one gun per month idea

Second Amendment advocates packed the Capitol Rotunda in Harrisburg yesterday for a pro-gun rally headlined by the president of the National Rifle Association.

Second Amendment advocates packed the Capitol Rotunda in Harrisburg yesterday for a pro-gun rally headlined by the president of the National Rifle Association.

Listen:
[audio: 090421sdgunrally.mp3]

The Second Amendment rally has become an annual rite of spring in Harrisburg, but the event took on more meaning in the days after Governor Rendell’s new high-profile campaign for gun control measures.

Rendell has voiced support for a bill that would limit handgun purchases to one a month.

NRA president John Sigler told the crowd the government doesn’t have the power to ration constitutional rights.

Sigler: What if you were limited to one newspaper a month? Or one church service a month? Or how about one jury trial or one visit to your lawyer? Or better yet, one gathering like this? And why simply one a month? Why not make it one a year? Or one a lifetime?

Pro-gun advocates filled the Rotunda, spilling into the hallways and balcony.

A Department of General Services spokesman says Capitol police had to temporarily seize 63 handguns rally attendees brought into the building.